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Vermont’s adult-use cannabis marketplace is not a viable business ecosystem for its small growers and manufacturers. Nearly three years into the formation of the regulated market, they need a lifeline from policymakers this legislative session, and momentum to allow them to sell their products directly to the public is mounting.
The shortcomings that burden the Vermont cannabis industry start with the issues impacting its small producers. Without the ability to sell their products directly to the general public, the capacity for small cannabis farms and businesses to survive is collapsing. This existential threat to small producers is a liability to the entire marketplace and conflicts with the original intent of the enabling statute, Act 164 (2020), to transition Vermont illicit small producers equitably.
Five key issues are causing small producers to close shop, and each can be traced back to market structure issues and the absence of the ability for small producers to sell their products directly to the public. Price volatility – producers must wholesale their products, taking at least a 50% loss on their labor. Outsized leverage from intermediaries – retailers can dictate price and variety. Lack of geographical distribution of points of retail – retail opt-in policy is bottlenecking the supply chain, with only 30% of all Vermont towns allowing cannabis sales. No price buffer from seasonal dynamics – seasonal supply and demand forces amplify if small producers cannot sell their products directly to customers when production is slow. No ability to form a relationship with customers – it is difficult for farmers and product makers to educate and get to know their audience when shoppers can only purchase from retail shops.
Each of these five critical issues also places an excessive burden on local retailers to try to compensate for these market shortcomings—when small producers cannot sell products directly to the public, every license type in the supply chain gets disadvantaged, including the customer. If policymakers do not supply a lifeline for small farms and businesses this year, they will continue to struggle and exit the market, and the unique qualities and strengths that local small producers bring to shape the entire marketplace will irreversibly suffer.
However, momentum to enact direct sales is building. In August 2024, the CCB worked with the Tuck Business School at Dartmouth tosurvey its Tier 1 Cultivators to assess their needs and challenges, and the number one priority returned by licensees was implementing direct sales. In January 2025, the New York General Assemblyenacted a farmer market concept for its regulated cannabis market to allow direct sales for producers. Also, in January 2025, the CCB delivereda legislative report on equity that recommends implementing direct sales for small producers.
We call on the Cannabis Control Board to follow through on its recommendations to legislators this year to implement direct sales for small producers and to act on the responses from its Tuck Business School survey. We call on legislators and the lieutenant governor and governor to listen to the voices of their constituents, of local cannabis licensees, a nascent tax base responsible for over 1,100 jobs and over $17M in annual state revenue, and advocacy organizations this year, and to not let New York state treat its cannabis farms and businesses better than we do, and to enact a lifeline for Vermonters in the form of direct sales for its small cannabis producers. Finally, we call on the cannabis industry and its allies to mobilize this year and urge policymakers to act before this dire situation becomes irreversible. Momentum is building. Vermonters are hurting. Time is of the essence.
About Vermont Growers Association
As a non-partisan, mutual-benefit, nonprofit trade association, the mission of the Vermont Growers Association, the largest and oldest organization representing the adult-use market, is to ensure Vermont has an equitable, viable, craft-centric, small business-driven cannabis marketplace through education, marketing, and advocacy. We see Vermont as a premier state for locally produced, world-class-quality cannabis and related products.
”}]] Vermont’s adult-use cannabis marketplace is not a viable business ecosystem for its small growers and manufacturers. Nearly three years into the formation of the regulated market, they need a lifeline Read More
